KINGS 5, COYOTES 3

By Dave Vest
GLENDALE – Captain Shane Doan scored two goals for the Coyotes, and Radim Vrbata notched his team-high fourth goal of the season, but it wasn’t enough to lead Phoenix to a victory over Los Angeles on Saturday night at Jobing.com Arena.

The Kings scored three power-play goals and won 5-3.

The Coyotes (6-3-0) committed seven penalties, including a pair of too-many-men-on-the-ice infractions.

“We made some mental mistakes that come back to haunt you,” Coyotes Head Coach Dave Tippett said. “… Mental mistakes led to power-play goals against (us). We just need everybody on board every night and we had some guys that I didn’t think pulled their weight tonight. We’ve been pretty good that way but we’re looking for some more from some people. “

Tippett did not name names, but he certainly was not speaking about Doan, who nearly notched his first career hat rick at 3:56 of the third period.

“(He was) excellent,” Tippett said. ”A few guys in there could take a page from that.”

Jarret Stoll scored his first two goals of the season, Anze Kopitar chipped in three assists and Jonathan Quick made 30 saves for Los Angeles, which avenged an opening-night loss to the Coyotes on Oct. 3.

Tied at 2, Coyotes defenseman Keith Yandle lost control of the puck at the Phoenix blue line early in the third, and LA's Scott Parse, playing his first NHL game, took control of it and slid a pass to Stoll, who beat Ilya Bryzgalov at 2:16 with a nice cross-crease move.

LA's Wayne Simmonds gave LA a two-goal cushion at 9:12 when he knocked a rebound past Bryzgalov on a delayed Phoenix penalty.

Doan pulled the Coyotes to within 4-3 less than three minutes later when he bullied around LA defender Jack Johnson and banged the puck off Quick’s left pad and into the net at 12:30.

The Coyotes did not get any closer, however, and their second extra-man-on-the-ice penalty at 18:57 sealed their first defeat in five games and the third consecutive victory for the Kings (7-4-0).

Petr Prucha (left) and Brad Richardson battle for the puck on Saturday. (Photo by Getty Images)

Phoenix led 1-0 after 20 minutes. Moments after an interference penalty on Coyotes forward Paul Bissonnette expired, LA's Alexander Frolov was called for hi-sticking at 8:19. With 27 seconds left in the power play, Doan knocked the rebound of a shot by Robert Lang into the Kings net for a 1-0 lead.

Coyotes forward Petr Prucha was called for holding at 4:04 of the second period. With 1:23 left in the power play, LA's Dustin Brown scored an easy goal off a slick backhanded pass from Kopitar, who drove the puck to the net up the slot.

Kopitar was called for hooking at 8:30 of the second. The Kings killed the penalty and nearly scored right after it ended as Kopitar got control of the puck fresh out of the penalty box and skated in on Bryzgalov on a breakaway. Kopitar made several moves on Bryzgalov, but the Coyotes goalie blocked his backhanded attempt from in close with his stick. The Coyotes were called for too many men on the ice during the Kopitar breakaway at 10:46.

With the score tied at 1, Phoenix's Radim Vrbata was called for tripping at 12:28 of the second period to create a five-on-three LA advantage for 19 seconds. The Coyotes killed the five-on-three, but defenseman Zbynek Michalek was called for cross-checking Dustin Brown to create another five-on-three LA advantage, this time for 1:08. The Coyotes nearly killed the second two-man disadvantage, but the Kings finally cashed it in with four seconds left as Anze Kopitar slid a crisp cross-slot pass to Jarret Stoll in the left circle and Stoll one-timed the puck past Bryzgalov at 14:24.

• Defenseman Sami Lepisto, who has impressed Coyotes coaches with his strong play while replacing Kurt Sauer on the blue line, notched his first point with the Coyotes when he assisted on Vrbata’s goal at 15:42 of the second period.

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LA's Matt Greene was called for hi-sticking Paul Bissonnette in the face at 2:55 of the third period. To help plead his case, Bissonnette showed the officials a tooth he lost on the play.

• The five goals the Coyotes allowed were the most they have allowed in one game this season.

• KFNX News Talk Radio 1100 will broadcast the Coyotes road game against the New York Rangers at 4 p.m. on Monday, Oct. 26, due to a schedule conflict on the team’s flagship station, XTRA Sports 910 (KGME-AM). In addition to coverage of the game, KFNX News Talk Radio 1100 will also air Coyotes pre and post-game programming. Per usual, fans will also be able to stream live audio coverage of the games online at www.nhl.com.

"We got two points the other night against Detroit where we didn’t think we played as good as we could. Tonight we did it again. We tried to get away with it without playing a full 60 minutes. It’s tough."

"Their key players made key plays at big times in the game...I thought our chances were there, but at key times we had a few mental errors that cost us the game."

"(The Coyotes) are going to keep coming. That’s the team they are. They’re a hard-working team that’s never going to give up and in the short season, we’ve already seen that with them. They’re a hard team to play.”